


Tape Recorder

by Gia_my_roommate



Series: Written by someone who has not listened to TMA [5]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Crack Treated Seriously, Jon turns into a tape recorder, M/M, STILL CRACK, Slow Burn, graphic depictions of pain, the eye sucks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:35:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24095944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gia_my_roommate/pseuds/Gia_my_roommate
Summary: “I can’t go to the annual Institute holiday party if I’m a tape recorder!”
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Series: Written by someone who has not listened to TMA [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1729438
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	Tape Recorder

Elias Bouchard had some deformity apparently, everyone knew this. The man always kept one arm very well hidden in a sling, which was under a cloak, but everyone could see the unnatural bulge. 

No one who continued to be alive ever asked about it, of course. It is none of their business and impolite.

“Seriously though,” Tim jokingly said one slow morning “What if it’s like a flipper? We could be working for the penguin and not even know it!” 

Everyone who learned the truth wished Tim had been right, that it was just a flipper.

It had started, for Jon, with joint pain in his left hand.

Then his fingers on that hand started to darken.

Jon would have gone to the hospital, but he figured early on this had something to do with the entities or some avatar of the whatever.

So he investigated, trying to learn the cause as his fingers on his right hand became harder and harder to bend.

Jon did not begin to panic until his fingers began to merge with each other.

“Jon, what happened to your hand?” Martin asked, surprised to see Jon in the archives at 4 a.m reading. 

“I don’t know. Probably some Leitner or cursed object or something. I haven’t figured out the cause of it yet.” Jon replied, re-reading another statement. 

Jon could not find anything on what was happening to him, nothing that was not short of impossible at least.

Jon’s hand grew hard, feeling almost like plastic.  
At some point Jon figured out exactly what was happening, but refused to accept it.

He was not oblivious to the fact he was being consumed by the power of the beholding and becoming an avatar.

Nor was he oblivious to the fact Elias had a deformity that was eerily similar to Jon’s. Hell, everyone seemed to see the connection there.

“Maybe you and Elias could be flipper buddies.”  
Tim had joked, though there was an underlaying fear. 

Everyone was concerned about what was happening.

The law straw was when piano key like tabs started to grow out of his hand.

“Elias,” Jon stormed in, slamming the door behind him. “What is going on with me? What is happening to my hand?” 

Jon held up his deformed hand. 

Elias seemed delighted, looking up from some finance report. 

“I think you can figure that out on your own, Archivist. Really, someone like you should figure it out rather quickly.” 

“I’ve tried, but there are no statements, no notes, nothing on anything like this.”

“Give it some time.” Elias said, going back to reading.

“Tell me, Elias. Now.” Jon demanded, and felt his deformed hand contort painfully.

Jon cried out in pain as he felt bone begin to turn hallow and merge into his hardening flesh.

Jon fell to his knees gasping in pain, only to be relieved of it when numbness began to set in.

“I would do that less often if I were you.” Elias hummed. 

“What do you know?” Jon demanded with heavy breaths.

Elias, out of amusement, decided to throw his little archivist a bone.

Elias unwrapped his deformed hand, only, Jon discovered, it was not a hand.

“Is that a...” 

“Tape recorder, yes.” Elias smirked, eye glittering with glee.

“Is there anyway to stop it?” 

“Perhaps. I’m sure you can find a way.” 

“I’m not playing this game, Elias. How do I stop this?” Jon felt the same searing sensation he did before as his hand began to lose bone. The feeling of bone simply being lost was the same sensation one would get when one drank orange juice after brushing their teeth.

Another may have liked it, Jon did not. 

“This is always the hardest part, when the first hand is in the in-between stages.” Elias casually moved around his desk and leaned against the front, watching Jon gasp in pain. “The second hardest will be the head, that’s a large adjustment stage.” 

“The head? You mean this isn’t going to stop at the hand?” Jon realized, horrified.

Elias laughed, like Jon was a child asking to go see a real dinosaur.

“Elias, this isn’t funny! Answer my questions!” Jon felt as the joints and tissue connecting his hand to his wrist tore apart and merged.

Having a joint dislocated was painful, but not the most Jon had had to endure.

However, the merging felt as if someone was welding something directly onto the bone of his wrist. 

Jon forced himself to bite into his own shirt as not to cry out to loudly.

“At this rate you’ll be gone faster than Gertrude.” Elias commented, picking up some paper from his desk.

Jon howled in agony as the tip of his hand began to grow flat with sharp edges. It was like stubbing your toe with a dozen bricks while walking on hot coal. It burned and screamed and ached. 

It felt like hours before the pain began to dull.

“What happened to Gertrude?” Jon demanded, but did not have the strength or energy to compel this time.

Elias picked up a tape recorder that had appeared and threw it down next to Jon. The tape recorder was slightly brighter and more silver than most of the tape recorders. The buttons however seemed regularly pressed and overall, despite the shine, seemed rather old and well used. Jon recognized it as the one Martin found in the tunnels, the one with Gertrude’s final tape.

“This is what all who serve the great Beholding become, in time. Gertrude lasted extraordinarily long, but after death the process continues on the body.” Elias indulged Jon one last time, because he enjoyed the look his archivist had on his face when realizing what was happening. “Now, I have work to do. Feel free to not visit more often.”


End file.
